In many systems, stereoscopic pair of images, or more generally multi-view images, of a head may be captured in one device and displayed on a different device for viewing by an observer. One non-limiting example is a system for performing teleconferencing between two telecommunications devices. In that case, each device may capture a stereoscopic pair of images, or more generally multi-view images, of a head of the observer of that device and transmit it to the other device over a telecommunications network for display and viewing by the observer of the other device.
When a stereoscopic pair of images, or more generally multi-view images, of a head is captured and displayed, the gaze of the head in the displayed stereoscopic pair of images, or more generally multi-view images, may not be directed at the observer. This may be caused for example by the gaze of the head not being directed at the camera system used to capture the stereoscopic pair of images, for example because the user whose head is imaged is observing a display in the same device as the camera system and the camera system is offset above (or below) that display. In that case, the gaze in the displayed images will be perceived to be downwards (or upwards). The human visual system has evolved high sensitivity to gaze during social interaction, using cues gained from the relative position of the iris and white sclera of other observers. As such errors in the perceived gaze are disconcerting. For example in a system for performing teleconferencing, errors in the perceived gaze can create unnatural interactions between the users.